Abu Mazen

JERUSALEM - Struggling to restore a cease-fire with militant groups and fighting off challenges to his own power, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has called for a vote of confidence next week that he seems far from assured of winning. Abbas has asked for a vote that could take place as early as Monday, when he is scheduled to address Palestinian legislators about his first 110 days in office. Some legislators, noting Abbas' disputes with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the lack of progress in carrying out a new peace plan, said yesterday that they would not support him. "I don't think that it's accepted that we go from one crisis to another," said Kadoura Fares, a legislator from Ramallah who supported Abbas in the past.

SURDA, West Bank -- Qadura Faris has a view from his office window that many people would envy. The Palestinian legislator looks down on green fields, villa-like houses and olive trees lining stone terraces that are carved into the jagged landscape. It would be a tranquil scene if not for all the people. A sand-swept road -- blocked to cars by dirt mounds -- is jammed with young and old, spry and infirm, trudging under a hot sun to and from an Israeli army checkpoint that divides the city of Ramallah from three dozen villages.

ABU DIS, West Bank - Shut out of a Middle East peace conference in Jordan on Wednesday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday dismissed a promised Israeli concession, as skepticism on both sides and around the region vied with hopes for peace. Arafat's criticism was an implicit slap at the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who has been trying to demonstrate progress toward improving Palestinian life as he lobbies militant groups to lay down their arms. On Wednesday, after meeting with President Bush in the port city of Aqaba, Abbas declared that the armed Palestinian uprising against Israel "must end."

JERUSALEM - In a show of defiance to Israel and the new Palestinian government, hundreds of masked and armed Hamas fighters marched through the streets of Gaza City yesterday in a funeral procession for 12 people killed in an Israeli raid Thursday. The funeral drew thousands of Gazans, many of them calling for retaliation or chanting slogans against the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who took office Tuesday. Abbas, who is known as Abu Mazen, wants to restrain the armed uprising.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, seeking to bolster an emerging team of Palestinian leaders, is pressing Arab and European nations to cut back diplomatic contacts with Yasser Arafat and divert the financing of Palestinian activities away from his control, administration officials said yesterday. The campaign for a global drive to undercut Arafat is one of several items on Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's agenda for his trip to the Middle East next month, the first Bush administration attempt in a year to become directly involved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

WASHINGTON - While the war in Iraq has rightly grabbed all the attention in the Middle East, another effort at regime change has also been going on in the neighborhood, and it's been quite a drama. It's the silent coup that Palestinian moderates, led by Mahmoud Abbas, have been trying to undertake against Yasser Arafat. Mr. Arafat was forced by the Palestinian legislature to designate Mr. Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) as his first prime minister. The move was openly designed to diminish Mr. Arafat's power and to ease him upstairs, if not out the door.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday nominated a widely respected political moderate to serve as his government's first prime minister, which he said proves that he is serious about instituting reforms. Arafat named Mahmoud Abbas, widely known by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen, during a speech to the Palestine Liberation Organization's 122-member central council, which endorsed the selection. Arafat said it represents "comprehensive reform in all aspects" and answers demands made by critics, including Israel and the United States.